265 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
265 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet except where noted!
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December 24, 1992
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SUBLIMI2.ASC
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This is an early article in the field of subliminal suggestion.
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Modern research questions the validity of subliminals although there
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is a profusion of subliminal tapes. Sleep learning takes advantage
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of this because the subconscious records everything even when the
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conscious mind is asleep.
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My father used to have a phonograph with many switches on the face
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of a clock. It was part of a system that included records to help
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the user overcome various problems or induce specific habits. A
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record with the desired suggestions was placed on the turntable and
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the timer was set to play the record when the user was sleeping,
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somewhere around 2 AM. The user could also set it for multiple
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events of the same recording to further reinforce the process.
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It is illegal to broadcast subliminal images on TV, radio or movies,
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although subliminals are frequently used in visual printed ads.
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Now ad men have a new way to persuade you. They can pop a
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suggestion into your mind, using TV or movies, without your knowing
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it.
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TV's New Trick:
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Hidden Commercials
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By Wesley S. Griswold
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Probably you've heard about - perhaps even worried about a
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revolutionary new way to beam messages into the human mind.
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Especially suited to TV and movies, the new idea-injecting technique
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is said to work while you, all unawares, are innocently enjoying the
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program. The idea-words appear superimposed on the picture images
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too fast and too dimly to be seen in the normal way. Yet they
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register on your mind.
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Despite rejection by the national networks, uneasy skepticism by the
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F.C.C. and alarm from people who fear that this strange development
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may bring wholesale invasion of privacy and risk of political
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tyranny, two means of reaching people's subconscious minds by
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television are currently being tested.
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This month one of them, called Precon TV, was scheduled to be tried
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out on a large audience of TV watchers in and around Los Angeles.
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It was to have been Precon TV's first big showing. It's rival,
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Subliminal Projection, about which almost no technical details have
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been released, has already ventured on the air in Bangor, Me., and
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Page 1
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on a Canadian national hookup. Results for Subliminal Projection:
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inconclusive.
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For its debut on independent Station KTLA, Precon TV did not plan
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to use advertising. Instead, public-service messages-like "Drive
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Safely," "Support Your Community Chest," or "Don't be a Litterbug,"
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- were to be tucked away into the telecast picture.
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But after this plan was announced, so much public criticism of the
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new technique boiled up that the trial was postponed. Controversy
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over these idea-injecting systems has swirled around three issues:
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(1) Are they legally proper?
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(2) Are they ethically acceptable?
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(3) And do they really work at all?
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Precon TV has a long history behind it. (The trade name comes from
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the work "preconscious," meaning "below the level of conscious
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awareness." "Subliminal" means the same thing.)
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Its inventors, Dr. Robert E. Corrigan of Los Angeles and Prof. Hal
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C. Becker of New Orleans, both men now in their mid-thirties, have
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been testing the theories and working parts of Precon for the past
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eight years. Patents were applied for early in 1955, but have not
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yet been issued. Consequently, the inventors decline to tell
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everything about their creation, though they have revealed the
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essentials.
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The basic equipment, the means of sprinkling televison programs with
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invisible but receivable messages, is contained in a rectangular
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metal box about half the size of a standard table-top TV set. Its
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power unit, in a separate, much smaller container, runs on house
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current.
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This equipment is a kind of electronic mixing bowl, where printed
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information can be subtly stirred in with pictures. Inside the main
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Precon TV cabinet, along with 17 vacuum tubes and a photo
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multiplier, is a little flying spot scanner and, in front of its
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round face, a small frame for holding the text to be scanned. The
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text is printed on a transparent plastic slide, on a three-by-four
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inch space.
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Picture signals from image-orthicon tubes in studio cameras focused
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on live performances, or from iconoscopes recording filmed scenes,
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are piped into the Precon TV apparatus on their way to the station's
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antenna.
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To understand what happens to them in the Precon blender, remember
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that it takes one-thirtieth of a second for a cathode-ray tube to
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project one complete picture image on a televison screen. In that
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time it has to scan the picture twice, each perusal taking one
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sixtieth of a second.
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Inside the Precon TV cabinet, with the aid of the pulsed light
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emitted by the flying spot scanner, the printed message is super-
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imposed on the incoming picture signals every other one-sixtieth of
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a second. (The rate of mixture can be varied, as can the intensity
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of the pulsed light, which normally is less than one-third as bright
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as that of the picture signals.) The well-mixed video brew then
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flows on to the station's antenna, to which the program's sound
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Page 2
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signals, not involved in Precon TV, proceed independently.
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Prof. Becker, an electronics engineer and physicist who teaches
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experimental neurology at Tulane University, points out a
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fascinating quirk:
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When you suspect you're watching a Precon program, you can
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find out what the hidden message is by spreading the fingers
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of one hand and moving them rapidly up and down in in front
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of your eyes. By varying the rate of this movement, you'll
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soon find and match the rate at which the Precon message is
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being pulsed. Then you'll be able to read it.
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"The two questions we are most often asked about Precon," said Dr.
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Corrigan, a former fighter pilot who is now a psychologist for the
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Douglas Aircraft Co.," are 'How do you know that it works?' and 'Is
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it dangerous?'
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"We have found ample proof that it works," he continued, "in
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exhaustive experiments at Tulane University that we have been
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conducting since 1950. In the course of finding that proof, we
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also became convinced that the Precon technique of communication
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can't be dangerous. There is no possibility of brainwashing by
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Precon, for each man is his own censor. His preconscious mind
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responds to Precon messages in complete accord with his likes
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and dislikes. There is no better chance of putting something
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over on his preconscious mind than there is of hoodwinking his
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conscious mind."
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Corrigan and Becker discovered people's built-in censorship in tests
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in which three different types of words were very rapidly projected
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on a screen. Some of the words were neutral-like "stove," "table"
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and "rug." Some had emotional impact - "scream," "blood," "hate."
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Others were obscene words.
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In repeated trials, the speed at which each word was flashed on the
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screen was slowed until the person being tested could say that he
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definitely had seen it. The researchers found that the emotional
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and obscene words had to be shown two or three times slower than the
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neutral words before people watching the screen could recognize
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them. Corrigan and Becker took this as firm evidence that the
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people were resisting and censoring upsetting words.
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Next,in addition to calling out when they could identify a word ,
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the subjects were asked to press a little lever as well. It was then
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discovered that not only did they push the lever sooner than they
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reported seeing the word - thus proving pre-conscious perception
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-but they reacted preconsciously to emotional and obscene words
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precisely as they did when conscious of them. They were censoring
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them without being aware of it.
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Further tests showed, they contend, that people can be taught
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preconsciously. Corrigan and Becker arranged to give their
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subjects tiny electric shocks whenever certain neutral words were
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flashed on the screen. Then the shocks were stopped, but when the
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words that had been associated with them appeared again, the
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subjects reacted to them preconsciously if they were words highly
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charged with emotion. They had learned, without realizing it to
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attribute a new and painful meaning to harmless words.
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Page 3
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The Precon developers gave groups of people jumbled letters to
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rearrange into actual words. Before the test began, they showed
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the answers on a screen, too fast for anyone in the room to see.
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Preconsciously they were seen, however, and comparative tests
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indicated that the subjects solved the puzzles 15 to 46 per cent
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faster when the answers had been slipped to their sub-conscious
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minds in advance.
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Finally Corrigan and Becker expanded their experiments to theater-
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size audiences. They showed movies - color cartoons - in which
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printed information was hidden from conscious view. In one case,
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geometric symbols - a triangle, a circle and a square-were used. In
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the other, gasoline trade names were used. After the audiences had
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seen the films, they were asked to tell whether they liked, felt
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indifferent to, or disliked each movie.
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They were then shown the symbols and the trade names and asked to
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give their reactions to them. The results suggested that the way
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people had reacted to the symbols and trade names influenced the way
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they reacted to the movies. If they felt "positive" toward the
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preconscious information, they liked the movie; if they felt
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"negative" about the information, they objected to the movie.
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The Precon inventors feel this point, then, is amply proved: Our
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preconscious likes and dislikes are the same as our conscious ones.
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Nobody, they contend, is going to convince us by Precon TV to buy
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something we don't want to buy, or do something we don't want to do.
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Corrigan and Becker began their experiments with Precon apparatus
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with the thought that the technique would be wonderfully useful in
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education (training films) and psycho-therapy (reaching the
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consciously withdrawn patient by tapping him on the subconscious).
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They still are ardently convinced of this.
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The commercial possibilities occurred to them later. Already the
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inventors, through the newly created Precon Process & Equipment
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Corp. of New Orleans, have marketed a counter top or window display
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electrical device for flashing Precon advertising at passersby who
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think they are merely looking at an attractive illuminated color
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photograph. There is a strong likelihood that there'll be Precon
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movies, too.
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Dr. Corrigan is convinced that if emotion charged words suitable to
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the action of a movie are included in the film but are not
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consciously visible to its audience, the movie will gain in impact.
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Prof. Becker says the trick can be turned by super-imposing the
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words on a master print of the film, but that a better way would be
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to synchronize a special Precon movie projector with each theater
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projector. A leading motion-picture studio has indicated seriously
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that it would like to be shown how a Precon movie could be made.
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And a wag has already suggested what to call it - a "feelie."
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From Popular Science April 1958
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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Page 4
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